1. Skip to content
  2. Skip to main menu
  3. Skip to more DW sites

No hasty Fed policy change

Hardy GraupnerNovember 14, 2013

Addressing the Senate Banking Committee in Washington, the White House nominee to lead the Federal Reserve has said she is in favor of continued stimulus operations to support recovery. There's no policy U-turn in sight.

Janet Yellen, President Barack Obama's nominee to lead the U.S. Federal Reserve, is sworn in to testify at her U.S. Senate Banking Committee confirmation hearing in Washington November 14, 2013. REUTERS/Joshua Roberts
Image: Reuters

Janet Yellen emphasized Thursday the central bank would not stand in the way of supporting a robust US economic recovery.

"I consider it imperative to do what we can do to promote a very strong recovery," she told a Senate panel hearing on her nomination.

She was questioned closely on her views ahead of a banking committee vote on her nomination by President Barack Obama to succeed outgoing Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke.

No U-turn in sight

Yellen stressed Fed policy makers had the will and commitment to strengthen growth and the jobs market in the absence of inflation pressures and with the country still facing high unemployment.

Yellen nominated for Fed

00:27

This browser does not support the video element.

But the nominee conceded the central bank's stimulus program, including its generous asset-purchase scheme to hold interest rates down "could not continue forever." Yellen said the Fed would keep a close eye on the impact of the current easy-money approachand was taking the potential risks very seriously."

She also commented on the recent stock market rallies, seeing both the Dow and S&P 500 climb to new records on Wednesday. Agreeing that values had risen pretty robustly, Yellen argued "you would not see stock prices in territory that suggested bubble-like conditions."

hg/dr (AFP, dpa)

Skip next section Explore more